Man who bashed elderly woman jailed

A COFFS HARBOUR man who bashed an elderly woman with a metal bar and robbed her was sentenced to jail last week. Michael David Baker, 20, pleaded guilty to specially aggravated break and en- ter. In Coffs Harbour District Court on Friday, Baker was sentenced to eightand-a-half years in prison, with a non-parole period of five-and-a-half years. Baker broke into the Edinburgh Street unit of a woman, 78, on March 23. The attack landed the woman in hospital. n In other news, thieves stole cash, tools and electrical equipment from a unit in Archer Close, Coffs Har- bour, early on Sunday. Police said the occupant heard someone inside the house and discovered the offenders had gained entry through a garage door. The tools and electrical gear were later recovered.